hexagon ppsh41

[iratecabbie]

Iratecabbies review of the Hexagon PPsh41…


The PPsh41, an iconic gun. It can be said with some justification that the ppsh41 “papa shah!” was the very best Smg of world war 2. The real steel version was produced in huge numbers with around 5 million being manufactured during the war. A true product of the USSR the PPSH was built to low tolerances high strength and utter reliability. The weapon proved so good that the whermacht used as many as they could capture, using so many in fact that the ppsh became the number 2 smg in the german army.
The gun itself, was a solid tool for spraying large amounts of 7.62 pistol ammo around, and as a rule was generally equipped with a box mag holding about 70 rounds. Nasty!

So with all this history I have been waiting for years for this beast to make an appearance on the airsoft scene and then like buses, two come along at once!
So here is my review of the Hexagon version of this icon of Russian military hardware.

I purchased my hexagon ppsh41 via a uk retailer for £254, delivered.
The gun arrives in a very well padded box with only a black sticker featuring the hammer and sickle for decoration (urahh!)
First impressions on taking the gun from the box,,,
It’s a weighty piece of kit, the wood feels textured and good to the touch and the steel exudes a solidity that just begs you to go whack a comrade with it.
The gun comes with a canvas and leather buckle type sling, and of course there is the drum mag.
Instructions are limited to a simple photocopied manual of about 5 pages showing how to load/batt and strip the gun, enough to let you work the gun, but no more.
The gun though, it’s a work of art. I have handled and owned hundreds of airsoft guns over my time in the sport. And I have to give this gun the best marks of any for feel, heft and realistism. The wood is a fairly bright yellow, though I have seen real ppshg41’s with the same colour wood, if you don’t like the colour, it would be little trouble to sand and stain the stock to your desired hue.
The metal work is very solid, better than classic army for strength and probably better than the real steel for finish. The barrel sleeve and upper receiver appear to be made from steel stampings-in the same way that the real gun was made, with welds at various points.
There are very few screws or bolts that can come loose and again the gun exudes solidity.
The bolt is also steel and unlike the Ares version is not a blowback. It is held forwards and locked normally but with flick of the thumb the lock can be released and the bolt pulled to the rear exposing the hop. (a g36 typ) allowing you easy access to alter the hop.
The sights for the gun are very basic notch and post types with a flip up rear sight. (a gesture to realism rather than practicality.)
The sling that comes with the gun is fitted to the left of the gun, with a screwed in attachment point in the stock and a simple metal loop on the muzzle. It feels strong and secure, but the slings only long enough to allow you to either sling the gun on your back or across your chest—you cant shoulder it with the sling over your shoulder.

Trigger and selector. This gun has no safety catch, the selector has just the two settings, single and full auto. The selector itself site inside the trigger guard, in front of the trigger, though you cannot operate it with your trigger finger as its just too far forwards. As selectors go, its nice and solid and its very positive.
The trigger guard is huge, I suspect a design feature of the original to allow soldiers with thick gloves to handle it. the trigger has a good but unremarkable pull. A major gripe is that the triggers quite a reach,
The stock is rather fat at the pistol grip so as to accommodate the motor so as a result you have to stretch a bit to reach the trigger, I can do it, but anyone with little mitts is going to struggle.

The magazine,,,,, oooh such a babe to look at, but a little disappointing when you open it. the mags exterior is steel. With the whole of the front being removed to facilitate loading, this is done by swinging a locking bar round then simple lifting the top off the mag. This makes for ultra quick reloading, and is I think a good feature. The internals for the mag are not the best though. It looks like a bog standard M4 type mag mech mounted crosswise with a small flexible feed tube reaching to the top. The mag holds only 600 rounds ( small number for so big a mag, but this is due to the shape of the internal mags walls. They can easily be modded by angling them out further so the gun can hold more, id say 1500-2000. I would also suggest that if you can you bodge an auto winder to it as the mag springs not very strong and a full wind gets maybe 100-150 rounds, not dreadful, but unimpressive. Theres plenty of room in the mag for these mods and I am already fitting a small bracket inside mine so as to hold a Philips screw driver (needed for batt changes). Loading a mag into the guns easy, you just slot it into the well and give it a tap to seat it, make sure when you do though that that the mag release catch is locked.
Battery,,,
To fit the battery you have to unscrew the butt plate of this gun, a simple thing and easily done assuming you have a screw driver. Stock the guns designed to use 8.4 minis and 11.1 lipoly, me being an awkward sod, I wanted mine to take 9.6 minis. To do this I had to chisel out some of the stocks interior, to give it the required depth (theres loads of potential room inside) but even so its still a touch narrow. With the battery in and the mag loaded,, I took the gun out for its first test shoot.

Setting up on the range, I made sure the barrel was clean and the mag wound on and started shooting.

First impressions,,,,
Rate of fires ok, but not stellar, id say 850-900 rpm on a 9.6v. the fps is good though and in the 320-330 range. Accuracy---that was awful at first and only improved after I spent some time modding the truly awful hop unit. the g36 type hop is not a good version with the adjustor having little to no effect. I had to build up the arm that rests on the hop bucking to get it to work.
With this mod completed things improved a lot and the range became acceptable with me hitting targets at 150 feet with ease. Oddly despite the basic sights and terrible hop, on single after my tweak, I found the gun to be very accurate and I think with a good after market hop and a tight bore this gun might well become a very good long range gun.

Shooting the gun is a pleasant experience, the full stocks comfy in the shoulder and though you’re a bit stuck for a fore grip its easy to hold the gun either by the mag or just behind it. firing from the hip the guns a lot of fun and very very pointable, I expect it to be a truly awesome bit of kit for the run and gun type game.

My only real bug bear is once more the magazine. It has a distressing tendancy to suffer mis-feeds. Every now and then you either have to wind on to force a pellet through or bang the mage to shake the jam loose. I suspect a careful service of the mag will improve things but even so it’s a worry as the gun comes with just the one mag and there are as yet no aftermarket spares to hand.

So overall how do I rate the gun,,
Build quality, the guns scores

8/10 only losing a point for the awful hop and another for the weak mag
Shootability,

8/10 handy, pointy and a good rof, only losing points due to hop and mag weaknesses.

8/10 Value for money.
its full metal and wood, solid, pretty and with work a very very good aeg, and once the mag and hop issues are sorted it will be a very strong performer.

Overall opinion.
It’s something different, its fun and it feels dependable. It looks the tits and you don’t have to worry about snapping it. I like mine, but im tempted to sell it on and get the more polished Ares version.